


A Night at Sotheby's

by ChillyHollow



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Alternate Universe, Auction, Cheating, Drama, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:07:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22512985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillyHollow/pseuds/ChillyHollow
Summary: Matthew is caught cheating by a private detective—and it changes Robin's life
Relationships: Ilsa Herbert/Nick Herbert, Matthew Cunliffe/Robin Ellacott, Matthew Cunliffe/Sarah Shadlock, Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43





	A Night at Sotheby's

**Author's Note:**

> For Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, whose jewelry and words propelled my narrative

Mrs. Cunliffe surveyed the crowd in the lobby of the auction house, trying to catch a glimpse of her husband who had just left her to speak to the friend who had gotten them tickets to this glittering event.There were just too many people crowding into the small space to see him, however.She moved along with the flow of the crowd heading to the bar and then on to the main exhibit space.There were huge photographs of the items to be auctioned in two days hanging on the walls amid meter tall calligraphy posters with sayings such as “Never explain, never complain” or “A woman can never be too rich or too thin.”One single piece of jewelry was in a special glass case, flanked by two armed guards.Robin moved forward a bit to look at the piece, a diamond flamingo broach with tail feathers in emeralds, rubies and sapphires.It was beautifully made, but a bit heavy for her taste.This evening she’d chosen to wear only small gold hoop earrings plus her engagement and wedding rings so as not to detract from the beautiful sleek emerald Vashti gown she wore.It was a rental. She couldn’t afford to buy such a lovely thing herself, especially since they were saving for an Audi and a new flat in a better part of town.But Matt wanted her to look her best so she’d manage to find this.He had barely glanced at her, though, just muttering, “Very nice” before concentrating on retying his tie.This event was important to him as he planned to network constantly.Robin hadn’t realized accountants needed to solicit clients this way but Matt had carefully filled the expensive engraved silver card case she’d gotten him for Christmas with business cards earlier in the day. 

Robin turned away from the display case and drifted with the flow of people towards the bar.She managed to get a glass of white wine, courtesy of a tall dark man in an Italian suit who, seeing her inability to push her way to the bartender, had gotten the glass for her, then nodded when she thanked him and walked away, vanishing in the crowd.Sipping her drink, she thought she spotted Matthew.Yes, there he was with his college friend Sarah who worked at Sotheby’s.Sarah was on duty, smiling and handing sales catalogues to anyone within range who looked wealthy.Matthew didn’t have a catalogue but he didn’t need one, not that they would be bidding.Sarah and her fiancé Tom had brought a catalogue along for Matt and Robin to see when they’d all met for drinks last weekend.Sarah had been full of the plans for the event, talking non-stop about the heavy security, the jewelry they were auctioning, and of course what she planned to wear.Tom wasn’t coming to tonight’s party.He had to miss it because his mother was ill.He’d go to the auction instead.Sarah already had him a ticket for it. 

“Hi, Rob,” said Matthew, his eyes already scanning the crowd behind her. “Robin,” squealed Sarah, who always pretended delight at Robin’s presence although Robin was pretty sure Sarah didn’t like her any more than Robin liked Sarah.Sarah’s fiancé Tom was colorless and dull, but he was Matt’s best friend and had helped Matt get his accounting job in London so Robin put out an effort to be nice to the couple. 

“Hello, Sarah.It looks like things are going well.”That’s all it took for Sarah to be off crowing about the size of the crowd, how she’d spotted several extremely wealthy people in the mix--”that actress from California and I saw one of Jonny Rokeby’s kids looking at the chokers”--and Robin could tune her out while smiling and sipping her white wine.“Shall we circulate, Matt?” Robin asked when Sarah stopped to breathe.“We don’t want to interrupt Sarah when she is working.”She drew Matthew away and steered him towards the main display of auction items.Sarah’s braying laugh and loud chatter gave her a headache after a while. 

Together they moved unspeaking toward the display cases.Matt seemed to like the enameled cufflinks and bejeweled shirt buttons, so Robin made a mental note to see if she could find antique cufflinks for his double cuff shirts since his birthday was getting closer.There were many engraved and bejeweled cigarette cases on display.Robin wondered if they would be relative bargains since fewer people smoked these days, or if they’d end carrying rich kids’ marijuana cigarettes.

Matt spotted several other people from his firm, so they headed towards them.Robin was introduced but the men ignored her after looking her over thoroughly.She was glad to have worn such a pretty dress, even if her jewelry wasn’t up to snuff.She was just there for show, after all.Robin sighed to herself, then noticed a glass case that no one was crowding around, so she moved away from the group of gossiping men talking about people she didn’t know and looked at the silvery charm bracelet it was displaying.It was a much simpler piece of jewelry than most up for auction, with various colored stones set in the nine small crosses that dangled from the silver and diamond links.The display case note said this was made by Cartier and the crosses had dates of special significance to the owner and her husband engraved on the back side.It was a charming piece, she thought.The calligraphy over the display read “For a gallant spirit there can never be defeat.”A good motto, she thought.She looked up and met the eyes of the tall dark stranger who’d gotten her wine who was now standing on her left, also looking at the display.He smiled and said, “Pretty thing.” 

Robin nodded, “I think it is a sweet piece, very romantic and sentimental.”The stranger moved closer to stand beside her and they both looked at the bracelet for a moment.Then he looked up and read the motto, nodded once to himself, smiled at her again and drifted away.Robin was sorry.She would have liked to have had someone to talk to in the crowd.She looked over toward where Matt had been, but the group of men had vanished. 

Robin continued to circulate, putting her half drunk wine glass on a table set out for that purpose.She hadn’t eaten much today and didn’t want to drink on a mostly empty stomach.Matt was always after her to diet, so food wasn’t that appealing, especially not when someone else was weighing every bite with their eyes.Her eyes fell on a stretched out panther bracelet, the animal in diamonds and black enamel crouched and stalking its prey.It was a beautiful piece of art but not one she could imagine on her wrist.She looked up and scanned the room again, looking for Matthew.She didn’t see him but she saw the tall stranger, walking across the room toward a wall door.Somehow he reminded her of the panther.He opened the door and vanished down a hallway. 

Robin frowned.Something was a little off about this.Her curiosity, which Matthew always decried, was aroused.She followed the man who she was sure was stalking someone.The doorknob turned easily under her hand.The hall was long with various doors opening off it.The man she was following was just visible turning the corner at the end.She slipped after him silently.When she came to the bend in the hall, she saw the man just ahead, his phone in his hand, checking something.Perhaps he’d just taken a photo?She stepped a bit to the side to see what on earth he was photographing and her heart stopped.

Ahead was an office with a desk just visible.Sarah was sitting on the edge of the desk, dress pulled up around her waist, legs spread wide, Matt standing between them with his pants down around his ankles.Robin could see Sarah’s red bikini briefs discarded on the floor and her distinctive moon and star anklet around one thick ankle.Matt had his hands on her hips and he was fucking her, grunting like a pig with each thrust while Sarah mewed along.The stranger, alerted to her presence, turned and looked at her while putting his phone away.He had sensed her somehow, although she’d not made a sound. 

Strike turned as he checked the photos he’d gotten for the client who suspected his fiancé was cheating on him to see the pretty woman he’d spoken to earlier standing as still as a marble statue, and as white.There was no color in her face at all.He thought she might faint.He stepped toward her, took her unresisting arm, and led her back down the hall as quietly as they’d both come. 

Back in the main display room, he guided her towards the bar which had cleared out substantially.“Brandy, if you have it,” he told the bartender.“The lady isn’t feeling well.”The bartender immediately produced a double which the stranger handed to Robin.She stood looking at it for a moment, then in one swift motion downed it all at once, took off the engagement and wedding rings she was wearing, put them on the bar, turned, and walked away.He looked after her for a beat, then grabbed the rings which he put in his pocket and followed. 

Robin automatically produced her coat check ticket and retrieved her wrap, then she moved out of the auction house entrance hall in a dream.On the sidewalk, she paused.What should she do?Go home?No, she didn’t want to see Matt ever again.Where could she go?She didn’t know many people in London and the ones she did know were Matt’s work friends, the last people she could turn to in this crisis.A hotel, that was what she should do.She had a credit card, so she could go to a hotel.She sensed a presence beside her.It was the man who had inadvertently blown her world to smithereens.Not his fault of course. 

“Did Tom hire you?” she asked him.“Tom Turvey?”He nodded.“He’s Matt’s best friend,”she said.“Matt is, was, my husband.” 

“Ah,” thought Strike.He had just ruined her marriage as well as confirmed Turvey’s worst fears.No wonder she looked like she would faint any minute.She must have had no idea.She was looking vaguely around and he realized the brandy taken so fast was beginning to have an effect.He’d better get her home before she passed out.This was his fault so she was his responsibility.

He raised his arm and hailed a cab.“Where do you live?” he asked her.Robin thought he had a nice voice, low and rough but very sexy.“I’m not going home,” she declared.“I never want to see that louse Matthew again.I’m going to a, a hotel.”

Strike was pretty sure no decent hotel would take someone who was going to be pretty under the influence by the time he could get her to one.“You’re coming with me,” he declared.The cab moved smoothly to the curb where he opened the door and guided her carefully inside, then climbed in after her and gave the cabbie an address.Robin laid her head back against the seat and a tear leaked out from one eye and rolled down her cheek unnoticed.She sat miserable and quiet until the cab pulled up at a nice white house in a quiet London suburb.Strike got out and she followed him meekly.He paid the cabbie while she swayed silently beside him.Putting his strong arm around her waist, he guided her toward the front door. 

“Is this your house?” Robin asked him.She didn’t care where she went or with whom but it seemed polite to ask.“No,” he answered and knocked, “This is Nick and Ilsa’s place.”Immediately the door was opened by a couple, the man tall and slender and the woman shorter and a little plump.They greeted the stranger with pleasure and then turned curious eyes toward her. 

Strike told them, “Need your professional services,” and guided her over the threshold.“She’s had a severe shock and downed a double brandy on what I suspect is an empty stomach.Can you look her over, Nick, while Ilsa and I talk?”

The slender man named Nick led Robin into the living room and sat her on the sofa.Robin realized he was talking to her, asking her when she’d last eaten, if she was dizzy or had blacked out, if she had any chest pain?She tried to answer his questions but it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying through the wall of ice that seemed to surround her. 

In the kitchen Ilsa gave Strike a hard look.“Did you bring me another lost cause?”“Nope, I just accidentally revealed to her that her husband is having an affair with his best mate’s fiancé and she’s shaken.It’s a slam dunk for a divorce. She’s going to need your legal expertise, though.He looks like the type that’ll put up a fight, just because he was caught out in the wrong.” 

He pulled out his phone and showed Ilsa the photos he had taken.She made a face.“Disgusting.You aren’t usually clumsy.How did you let her see these?” 

“I didn’t,” Strike explained.“I caught the couple screwing in an office at Sotheby’s headquarters tonight.The fiancé of the woman in the photos hired me to prove she was cheating on him.I followed them and got the shots, but the wife of the man in the photos--who is now your client, Ilsa, and I won’t take no for an answer--followed me and saw them at it over my shoulder.Every bit of color drained out of her so I got her brandy which she downed in one, dumped her wedding and engagement rings on the bar, and took off.I grabbed her rings…” he took them out of his pocket and handed them over to Ilsa “...and followed her.The booze was starting to hit her hard.She wanted to go to a hotel but I brought her here.She was so pale....”His voiced trailed off. 

Ilsa turned the rings over in her hand, thinking.Cormoran wasn’t usually so gallant.He could be a sucker for a hard luck story, though.And the woman was quite pretty and certainly in distress if what Corm had told her was the whole story.“Ok, I’ve got a new client.Worse comes to worse she can hock these to pay me.”Ilsa put the rings in a drawer of the desk in the hall.“Email me a copy of those photos.Let’s go see what Nick has to say.”They headed to the living room where they found Nick sitting next to Ilsa’s new client who had a little more color in her face.Nick looked at Strike, “She’s had a severe emotional shock and she says she hasn’t eaten today.She’s too thin, so perhaps she hasn’t been eating regularly for a while.That will exaggerate the effect of the brandy. I’m going to make her scrambled eggs and toast, then put her to bed. Ils, can you rustle up something for her to wear to sleep in?”Ilsa nodded and headed upstairs while Nick went toward the kitchen, leaving Robin alone on the couch.Strike sat down beside her, then he took one of her hands laying limply in her lap.Robin turned a blank face to look at him.

“Ilsa is a lawyer.If you want her help in divorce proceedings, she will give it.Nick’s a doctor.If he says you need food and sleep, then that’s what you need.You can stay here tonight in their guest bedroom. Tomorrow I’ll come back and we’ll discuss what you want to do next.” 

Robin held his hand tighter.“Please don’t leave me.” 

Strike said, “I’ll stay until you fall asleep but I have to meet Tom Turvey in the morning and give him the bad news.I’ll come back after.”

“Please tell Tom I’m sorry and that I had no idea.”Then she fell silent, staring at nothing, but holding Strike’s hand as if he was her only contact with reality.Nick brought a tray with food shortly, and Ilsa reappeared.“We’re set upstairs for her once she eats.”Robin just looked at the food, so Strike picked up a fork and began to feed her small bites of egg.As she ate her color improved until she was able to take the fork and feed herself, tearing off bits of toast occasionally.Nick brought her a glass of water and a sleeping pill to take after she’d eaten as much as she could. 

Strike frowned, “Is a sleeping pill wise after the booze?”

“Who is the doctor here?” Nick answered with a twinkle.It’ll knock her out but we’ll watch her, and sleep is really what she needs, sleep and food.”

“No,” Strike said firmly.“She’s my responsibility. I’ll watch her tonight.You can take over in the morning when I have to leave for a client meeting.”Nick shrugged and joined Ilsa upstairs where she was turning down the bed in the guest bedroom, pulling out a new toothbrush and toothpaste, finding a comb and towels and rummaging through her pajamas and workout clothes to find something that would fit Robin.“This will be ok, I think.Is she eating, Nick?”

“Oggy’s feeding her.He is quite protective of her.He says he’ll stay with her until she falls asleep, then he’ll be back tomorrow morning after a client meeting to talk to her.” 

Ilsa said that was probably the client Strike for whom he was following the cheating girlfriend, then she described the photos Strike had shown her to Nick.“Pretty explicit.Corm caught them in the act.Apparently the wife of the man cheating followed Corm and saw them at it, too.It must have come as a complete surprise given her reaction.” 

Nick frowned, “So the guy was cheating with his best friend’s fiancé?And his wife and Strike caught him?He’s certainly blown up his own marriage and his friendship over a quickie.” 

“The guy who hired Strike told him he thinks they’ve been having an affair for months,” Ilsa explained.“And the other woman isn’t nearly as good-looking as our friend downstairs.Men!” 

Nick kissed her.“Not all men are fools.I know a good thing when I see it.”Ilsa smiled at him.“Let’s check on Corm and his lady.”They went downstairs, hand in hand, to find Strike coaxing Robin to eat one more bite of toast.Ilsa looked thoughtful.She’d not seen Strike act this way since he’d been a teenager, protecting his baby sister Lucy from all comers. 

Robin was feeling better.The man feeding her had kind eyes and the people he’d brought her to were certainly treating her as if she was family.Doctor Nick was checking her pulse and pronouncing her ready to take her sleeping pill.She drank down the water obediently with the pill, then let Lawyer Ilsa lead her upstairs.She wasn’t as dizzy as she had been, either.Ilsa showed her the guest bathroom, pajamas laid out for her to change into and gave her a toothbrush, towels, soap, toothpaste, everything she needed.“I should text Matthew I’m not coming home,” she told Ilsa. 

“Let him sweat,” was Ilsa’s advice and Robin nodded.She was too tired to do it anyway and her phone was likely needing a charge.Better to save it for tomorrow when she had to call her parents and tell them her marriage was over.Ilsa helped her out of the rental dress and brushed her hair, then sent her to the bathroom to clean up and get into her loaned pajamas.They were a little too baggy and short for her but they would do fine for tonight.Robin sighed, looking at her white, drawn face in the mirror.What was she going to do now?

Well, that could wait until tomorrow.The stranger would be back to help her.He’d promised.She realized she didn’t even know his name.Ilsa could tell her but that was a little awkward to ask.But he’d said he would watch her while she slept so she could ask him then.With Ilsa’s help she climbed into bed.“Corm will be here shortly to stay with you until you fall asleep.If you wake up in the night, just call and Nick or I will be here.”Robin nodded.Corm?His name was Corm?That had to be short for something....

The man appeared in the doorway and lightly knocked on the door frame. Ilsa stood and said, “Here’s Cormoran to sit with you for a bit.”Ilsa patted her shoulder and left Robin alone with her rescuer.

Robin looked up at him, “Your name is Cormoran?” 

“Yes,” he smiled down at her, pulling up a chair next to the bed.“Cormoran Strike, at your service.”He pulled his wallet out of his suit jacket and removed a business card that he put on the bedside table.“How are you feeling?”

“Better.Thanks for bringing me here and getting some food in me, Cormoran.I’m Robin Cunliffe, soon to be Robin Ellacott again.” 

He took off his suit jacket and sat down in the chair next to the bed, putting a book on the bedside table.“My pleasure, Robin.Do you think you can sleep now or do you want me to read to you? I have a book entitled Important Criminal Trials of the 20th Century I snagged from Ilsa’s bookshelf downstairs.”

Robin smiled a little.“I think I can sleep, thanks, but I am glad you are here.” 

Strike looked at her, “I’m sorry I inadvertently let the cat out of the bag, Robin.”

Robin thought this over.“I’m not.I would rather know than not know, if that makes sense.”She was starting to feel sleepy.“Would you stay with me, Cormoran?At least for a little while?”

Cormoran smiled at her and took her hand. “Of course.”Robin fell asleep with her hand tucked trustingly in his big one. 

The next morning Robin awoke with a slight headache.She checked her phone and discovered 8 text messages from Matthew and that it had a 25% charge left.She deleted each text message one by one, then sent one of her own to Matthew that had just four words: “I want a divorce.”Turning her phone off to save battery power, she got out of bed and peeked down the stairs.Hearing voices below, she hesitantly went down to find Ilsa and Nick in the kitchen.They’d obviously finished breakfast and were clearing away their dishes.Nick immediately went to her.“Good morning.How do you feel after a night’s sleep?”

“Better,” Robin smiled at him. “Thank you for your hospitality.” 

“Our pleasure,” answered Ilsa.“I’m due in court shortly, but Corm will be here in about 30 minutes with brunch.” 

“And I’m off to the hospital,” said Nick cheerfully.“Don’t let Oggy eat everything in sight, ok?He needs to lose weight.” 

Ilsa gave him a look and rolled her eyes.“Since when does he listen to you?”

Nick laughed.“I’m not a pretty girl.”

Robin blushed at the gentle teasing then listened carefully as Ilsa gave her a hurried orientation to the kitchen so she could make coffee and pull out plates and napkins when Cormoran arrived with the promised food.All too soon her hosts were gone, leaving Robin alone with her thoughts.She just had time to call her parents.Heading back upstairs, she made her borrowed bed, tucked Strike’s business card carefully into her wallet, then grabbed her phone and headed back to the living room so she could let Cormoran in when he arrived. 

Taking a deep breath she placed the call.She was still talking to her parents when Strike arrived twenty minutes later.She let him in, telling her mother she had to go now but she’d text her tonight.Strike was carrying coffees and a bag of what had to be pastries.Suddenly Robin was hungry.She showed Strike to the kitchen table she’d set with plates and napkins and they sat together, dividing up the treats.Strike had gotten her a skinny latte, which was a good guess, and himself a regular coffee.He pulled out all sorts of goodies from the pastry bag:cinnamon rolls with pecans, raisin scones, almond croissants, even iced donuts and brownies.Robin helped him arrange them on two large plates.“Did you go a little overboard here?”Strike looked guilty.“Well, we have to share with Nick and Ilsa, right?And I didn’t know what you like.”

Robin took a brownie while Strike helped himself to a cinnamon roll.They ate in companionable silence for a bit, then Strike washed down the last of his roll with the last of his coffee.“How are you feeling today?”

Robin decided to tell him the truth.“A bit disoriented.I just got off the phone from telling my parents I am leaving my husband because he cheated on me.I sent Matthew a text this morning telling him I want a divorce.I’m going to sit down with Ilsa this evening and decide how to handle divorcing him.I’m going to have to organize getting my clothes at least from our flat, but I don’t have a place to live or a job.”

Strike said, “You can stay with Nick and Ilsa in their guest room for now. We agreed on that last night when you were getting ready for bed. I can help organize getting your things moved here.What sort of job skills do you have?”

Robin sighed, “Mostly just secretarial.I dropped out of uni.”

Strike said, “I dropped out, too.But secretarial is good.You can work with me for a bit, helping me organize my office, while you look for something else.I never have enough time to get the filing finished, much less get the bills out on time.I can’t pay much but….”He stopped.

Robin had jumped up and run to the patio glass door, where she stopped, shoulders shaking.Strike was alarmed and quickly followed her.He gently touched her shoulder and at the touch, she turned and looked at him.Tears were running down her face.Strike grabbed a bunch of tissues from the box on the nearby table and pushed them into her hands.Robin, her voice shaking a bit, whispered, “Thank you.I don’t have any friends in London and all this you’ve done—it’s amazing.”

Strike said, “Look, this is all my fault.If I hadn’t been clumsy enough to tip you off as to what was going on, you wouldn’t be in this spot.”

Robin shook her head, “No, I owe you for that.I would still be married to a man cheating on me. That’s not the sort of life I want.”She dried her eyes with the tissues, then looked up at him.“More coffee?Ilsa showed me how to run her coffee maker.”

“Sure.More coffee will be good with one of those donuts.Then you can tell me how you realized what I was doing at the reception.”He followed her into the kitchen where she swiftly assembled mugs, coffee beans and water.She asked, “How do you like your coffee?”

“Black, no sugar,” was his answer.Robin busied herself getting the coffee maker going, then she said, “It was the panther bracelet that gave you away.”

Strike looked puzzled so Robin explained. “I was looking at a crouched panther piece on display, then I looked up and noticed you moving in the crowd.You moved just like the panther.It caught my attention.I saw you open the door into that hall and I just followed.Curiosity is my worst sin.I always want to know.”

“Me, too,” said Strike.He took a big bite of his donut.“That’s why I became a private detective after I left the Army.”

“Why did you leave the service?” 

“I was injured in a roadside bomb, lost the lower part of my right leg.I could have stayed but I wanted to get back to civilian life.I had a girlfriend and we got engaged.”

“What happened?”Robin knew instinctively there wasn’t a happy ending here from the look in Strike’s eye.

“Pretty much what happened to you.I broke it off with her because she cheated on me.She never liked my job, anyway.It took my attention away from her.”

“I’m sorry,” Robin said, and took a donut for herself.The coffee maker beeped, so she stood and filled their mugs with fresh coffee, adding cream to hers.She sat back at the table.“I guess I need to go to my old flat and pack my clothes and a few personal items.I have to return the dress I was wearing last night, too.It’s a rental from a fancy boutique.”

Strike pulled out his phone.“I’ll get you some help to get the move done fast.And we can drop off your dress on the way to your place. Where’s your flat?”

Robin told him, then watched as he sent a text message.“That’s set.Shanker will organize a crew, a moving van and boxes, and let me know when we can meet him there.”

Robin sipped at her coffee while Strike drank his. She was thinking about how last night’s trip to Sotheby’s had changed her life.“‘For a gallant spirit…’” she began to quote, and Strike added. “‘…there can never be defeat.’”

They laughed and toasted each other with their coffee mugs.“To us,” said Robin.“Us,” echoed Strike and they both smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write two stories about Robin discovering Matthew cheating on her with Cormoran provided support in two ways: as a friend and as a sexual partner. The other story is called A Weekend in Scarborough if you are interested in how it plays out there.


End file.
